LL-L "Grammar" 2007.09.13 (01) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  -  13 September 2007 - Volume 01
Song Contest: lowlands-l.net/contest/ (- 31 Dec. 2007)
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From: Kevin and Cheryl Caldwell <kevin.caldwell1963 at verizon.net>
Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2007.09.12 (04) [E]

One that hasn't been "singularized" yet is "glasses". Or "spectacles" for
that matter, but that word isn't used much anymore. Although you
occasionally run across the shortened form "specs", usually used in a
jocular manner.

And that reminds me of the joke about the accident at the telescope factory.
One of the workers got caught in the lens grinding machine and made a
spectacle of himself.

Kevin Caldwell
 From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Grammar

Thanks a lot for the "tweezer," John.  That's another one I've heard.
Here's another couple: "tong" instead of "tongs," and "pincer" instead of
"pincers."

It's great to have you in the speakers' corner, John.

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From: Paul Finlow-Bates <wolf_thunder51 at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2007.09.12 (04) [E]

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com >
Subject: Grammar

Thanks a lot for the "tweezer," John.  That's another one I've heard.
Here's another couple: "tong" instead of "tongs," and "pincer" instead of
"pincers."

It's great to have you in the speakers' corner, John.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
"Pincer is an interesting one.  If referring to a hand tool, I'd talk about
"pincers", like "scissors".  But then, I'd say that a crab or a lobster has
two pincers, and a fiddler crab has one pincer bigger than the other...
Paul Finlow-Bates

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From: Roger Hondshoven <rhondshoven at yahoo.com>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2007.07.27 (04) [D/E]

From: Luc Hellinckx <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology"

Beste Theo,

You wrote:
> Well, all Dutchmen know that in Belgium the f-word is
> called a velo, as we often in public are honoured with
> a very loud "gij velo-zot". (you, bicycle-fool").

Well, let me first tell you that I'm an avid cyclist myself (and that's
an understatement!).

However, I have never been greeted that way here in Belgium. Yet :-D .
So I'm afraid that either you were unlucky to meet the wrong kind of
people, or reasons other than bicycles may lie beneath this "insult". At
the same time, you should take the word "zot" lightly I think: It
doesn't mean that you are foolish to ride a bicycle, but rather that you
are "mad"ly in love with bikes. We also have the words "jongens-zot" and
"meiskens-zot" for example. They denote a teenager who is all the time
keen on getting new boy/girlfriends; this doesn't mean that such a
person is considered crazy.

Little detail, a true dialect speaker would have said "gij-se velo-zot".
I have no idea where this interjection -se comes from.

Hi Luc,

I have often wondered myself where this 'se(n)' comes from. I haven't got a
foolproof explanation, but my "buikgevoel" tells me that it is probably
related to the verb 'zien'. The interjection is quite often used in
East-Brabant expressions like 'gij sen deugeniet', 'gij se stoemerik', but
also - and this seems to support my claim that it is derived from 'zien' -
almost isolated in 'se nou', which I interpret as 'kijk daar nu'.

I'm sorry I'm so late in reacting to your posting. Lately, I have been so
occupied otherwise that I didn't find a moment to open my inbox.

Beste groeten,
Roger Hondshoven

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